In today’s episode of It's An Honor, we speak with Dr. Amanda Kraus, Assistant Vice President for Campus and Executive Director of the University of Arizona’s Disability Resource Center. Dr. Kraus shares her lived experiences with us, and her incredible perspective on access and equity, particularly in higher education. We discuss ableism, the importance of universal design, issues of accessibility in the classroom and campus, and the 2023-24 Franke Honors Common Reading Book, Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig.

The W.A. Franke Honors College is offering a Student Development Project for undergraduate students to participate in integrating culture, community and ephemeral art based on ancestral Mexican technique and expression. Franke Honors students are eligible to apply for positions working on guided design and production of a thematic installation to be displayed during the "Day of the Dead 2023" event on campus.

Franke Honors Alumni, Ziad and Akram Hindosh share about their experience with the Health and Human Values minor, and how the program helped them to pursue their med school dreams.

Victoria DeFrancesco Soto is Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas and is also a political analyst for NBC News and Telemundo. In this episode, Victoria breaks down public service and what it looks like across disciplines, the power of frustration in enacting change and helping her advance to where she is today, her parallel career in public service and political analysis in the media, how her lived experience informs her nuanced approach to analysis in issues such as border policy, and more. 

At the Franke Honors College, we are committed to exploring the ways our identity as an Honors College and a Hispanic Serving Institution intersect year-round.

On Wednesday, September 27, The Center for Creative Photography, in partnership with the W.A. Franke Honors College, will be hosting an event showcasing a student-curated exhibition as a part of the community focused gallery, Studio CCP. The event will be the paramount of a weeklong showcase of Franke Honors students’ work, alongside photographs from 8-track: Images of the West.  

Dimitri Ververelli graduated with Honors in Aerospace Engineering in 2011. He currently works as a flight test engineer at Pax River Naval Air Station in Maryland, and, for the last few years, has been working toward getting his masters degree at the University of Arizona. Dimitri is extremely passionate about flying and hopes to one day achieve his dream of becoming a NASA astronaut. He was recently interviewed and featured in our fall Alumni and Friends Newsletter.

Professor Bem Le Hunte is an internationally published novelist and an expert in the field of Creative Intelligence. In today’s episode, we discuss the power of thinking creatively across disciplines, Bem’s origin story with the creation of the BCII at the University of Technology Sydney, her process of bringing this extraordinary dual degree to the W.A. Franke Honors College, and how this cutting-edge program will impact future generations of Franke Honors Wildcats. 

Amarissa Carabajal moved into the Honors Village mid August, alongside many other expectant and excited first-year, first-generation students. She has been dreaming about attending the University of Arizona since she first visited the campus 10 years ago, and, while her journey to get here has spanned thousands of miles, oceans, and continents, her hopes of becoming a Wildcat and future veterinarian have remained the same.